Automatic liquid-weighing machine



June 14 1,631,957 J. J. FORTIER AUTOMATIC LIQUID WEIGHING MACHINE Filed April 23. 1924 2 Sheets-sheet 1 InueMor MM 7 J. .J. FORTIER AUTOMATIC LIQUID WEIGHING MACHINE Filed April 23. 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Illlllll Patented June 14, 1927.

UNITED STATES JAMES J. FORTIER, OF GRAND BAPLDS, MICHIGAN.

AUTOMATIC LIQUID-WEIGI-IING; MACHINE.

Application filed April 23, 1924. SerialNo. 708,368.

This invention relates to an automatic liquid weighing machine wherein a predetermined weightof the liquid maybe delivered from a faucet to a. container therefor, and after such delivery, the contents of the container may be automatically dispensed from the container to any desired receptacle, tank or the like. Such machine is of value in the retailing of gasoline at service stations, is also of value in ice cream manufacturing plants for the delivery of substantially exact weights of the cream mixtures to the freezers, and in many other places where liquid is to be handled and substantial exactness in amounts sold or used is desired.

My invention consists in many novel constructions and arrangements of parts for effectively accomplishing the above ends, as will fully appear from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the machine. the receiving container being shown in vertical section.

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through the faucet member of the machine.

Fig. 3 is a reduced side elevation of the complete machine, the parts thereof being in another position than they occupy in Fig. 1, and

Fig. 4 is a vertical section through a dashpot check forming one element of the construction of the machine.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the diflerent figures of the drawings.

In the construction shown, an outlet pipe 1 leads from any main source of supply, such as a tank or other large container of liquid which may be elevated so as to deliver its-contents by gravity or placed at a lower elevation with suitable pressure in the tank to force the liquid out when it is free to flow. On the end of the pipe 1, a faucet member 2 is secured by threading or other wise, said member being open at its front end and being provided with a downwardly and forwardly extending nozzle 3. A continuous passage is made" through the member 2 and its delivery nozzle 3. On the rear side of the nozzle 3 an upper bracket or arm 4 is cast integral with the nozzle and terminates in an eye 5, and below the arm 1 a projection 6 is cast integral therewith and the nozzle having two oppositely extending knife edge pivot members 7 at opposite sides thereof.

A sleeve 8 having a closed outer end is inserted into the open front end of the member 2 and permanently secured therein. The sleeve is formed with an opening 9 in its lower side to communicate with the nozzle 3 and its rear end is formed with an opening 10 in which a valve .seat is provided, the rear end of the sleeve coming against an annular inwardly projecting shoulder or rib 2 as shown. A rod 10 passes through the front end of the memher 8 and at its rear end is equipped with a valve 12 adapted to seat against the valve seat at the opening 10 described. A suitable stufiing box is provided in the front closed end of the sleeve 8 to prevent escape of liquid around the rod 11. At its outer end rod 11 is reduced in size and a threaded sleeve 13 mounted thereon on which a nut 14: is mounted, a strong coiled spring 15 being disposed around the rod 11 between the nut and the front closed end of the sleeve 8. The spring under compression normally serves to hold the valve 12 in closed position, and it may be adjusted as to force by-adjusting the nut 14: on the threaded sleeve 13, as is evident.

A latch bar 16 is pivotally mounted at 17 at its lower end on the eye 5, the bar adjacent its upper end being formed with a forwardly projecting dog 18. The bar extends upwardly from its pivot 17 and is normally drawn in a forward direction by the spring 19 connected to the bar and the arm t. A handle lever 20 is pivotally mounted between its ends at 21 on the front end of an arm 8 integral with and extending forwardly from the upper portion of the sleeve 8. The handle lever 20 and the pivot rod or pin 21 are secured together and the lever 20 at its outer end is provided with a handle 22 for manual operation of the lever, fingers 23 on the pin 21 bearing against the front side of the nut 14 so that when the handle 22 is grasped and the lever turned to depress its front end the fingers serve to move the rod 11 inwardly and open the passage normally closed by the valve 12. The rear end of the lever 20 rides over the dog 18 and seats against the upper shoulder thereof, the valve 12 being held in open position.

A short distance from the rear end of the lever 20, a rod 24 is pivotally connected thereto at its upper end at 25, the lower end of the rod carrying a piston 26 which works within a cylinder 27. The lower end 28 of the cylinder has a downwardly extending ear 28 which has pivotal connection at 29 with the nozzle 8 atone side thereof; and a suitable air outlet is made in the bottom of the cylinder, as indicated at 30, the passage being restricted in size so that air escapes comparatively slowly. On the upward stroke of the piston and rod, or when the handle lever is manually operated, the move-- ment of the piston is free but on the down stroke it can move only so fast as the escape of air at 30 will permit.

A scale beam 231 bears against the knife edge pivots 7 at points between the ends of the beam. A weight 352 is slidably mounted on the beam and at its rear end a stirrup 33 is mounted to which the usual weight carrying member 34 may be connected as shown. A bar is permanently secured at its upper end to the rear end of the member 2 and at its lower end has a portion 35 turned at right angles to serve as a stop for the scale beam which, at its rear end cannot drop any lower than permitted by the stop when it comes into engagement therewith.

At the front end of the scale beam a plate 36 is adjustably secured, a vertical slot 37 therein passing an attaching screw 38. A second substantially parallel vertical slot 39 is made in the plate in front of the slot 37. The lower end of a rod 40 is bent to pass through the slot 39 and headed over, as at 40 to make a permanent connection. The upper end of rod 40 has pivotal connection with a bar 41 bent into a curved shape, as best shownin Fig. 1, the upper end of the bar being pivotally connected to an car 42 which extends to the fear from the front end of the sleeve 8. The bend of the bar 41 comes directly in front of the latch bar 16 which at its front edge is drawn against said bar 41 by the spring 19 heretofore described.

On the scale bar 31, two knife edge pivots 43 are fixed a short distance back of the front end thereof, it being understood that said scale beam at its front is bifurcated so as to pass to each side of the nozzle 3, one of the pivots 43 being on each of the divisions. A container in the form of a receptacle 44 having an open upper end is suspended from said pivots by means of hook members 45 permanently connected at their lower ends to the receptacle and hooking over the pivots at their upper ends. The

bottom 46 of the receptacle has a central opening at which an outlet member 47 is secured, also provided with an opening therethrough at the upper end of which a valve seat is formed against which a valve 48 is adapted to seat to completely close the opening and make the receptacle proof against leakage. Valve 48 is attached at the lower end of a vertical rod 49 Which extends to and through a horizontally turned end 5O at the lower end of avertical bar 50, there being upper and lower nuts 51 and 52 on the rod 49 above and below the said end with a coiled spring 43 around the rod bet-ween the lower nut and said end 50.

The bar 50 at its upper end is pivotally connected at '54 at a point between the ends of a lever 55 which is pivotally connected at one end to an car 56 attached toone side of the receptacle 44 near the upper end thereof, said lever extending substantially across the open upper end of the receptacle. A rod 57 is pivotally connected to the handle lever 20 at its upper end and depends therefrom, at its lower end having a turn buckle connection 58 with the upper end of a rod 59 which is connected to the free end of the lever 55 at its lower end.

With the construction as shown in Fig. 23, valve 12 is in closed position, the outer end of lever 20 is raised, this serving to lift the lever 55 and open the valve 48. lVhen it is desired to obtain a certain weight of liquid, the proper weights are placed on the holder 34 and the weight 32 moved. for the finer adjustments or fractions desired and then the lever 20 is operated to depress its front end. lVhen this occurs, valve 48 is closed and held closed by spring pressure of spring 53 which is compressed with the downward movement of the bar 50; valve 12 is opened by the movement given to rod 11 by the fingers 23 and the rear end of lever 20 is engaged by the latch bar 16 so that the valve 12 is held positively latched. in open position, permitting the flow of the liquid through pipe 1 from the main source of supply to and through the member 2 and its outlet nozzle 3 to the receptacle 44. XV hen sufficient liquid has passed to the receptacle to overbalance the weights on member 34 and the weight 32 the receptacle 44 will drop below the position which it has occupied carrying the front end of the scale beam downward so that rod 40 will soon be at the upper end of the slot 39 whereupon with further downward movement the rod 40 will be drawn in a downward direction, moving the curved member 41 about its pivot and pressing the bend of said member 41 against the latch bar 16, causing it to move to the rear and unlatch from the l1andle'lever 20. Being thus freed, the spring 15 will cause the lever at its front portion to move upwardly about the pivot 21, valve 12 will immediately be moved to closing position, stopping the further flow of liquid, and lever 55 will be elevated with a consequent raising of the valve 48 so that the liquid contents of the receptacle may escape through the outlet 47. A hose may be attached to this outlet if gasoline is the liquid dispensed so as to convey the same to the fuel tank of a motor vehicle; or if desired, the liquid may be delivered directly to any suitable receptacle placed below the outlet 47 as an ice cream freezer if the liquid is the ice cream mix in an ice cream manufacturing plant. It will be noted that during the initial portion of the downward movement of the receptacle 4 1, the valve 48 is not affected as there is sufiicient space between the nut 51 and the end 50 of the bar 50 that such initial movement does not act on valve 18. The closing of valve 12 and opening of valve 48 are substantially simultaneous. The check interposed by the dash pot made by cylin der 27 and piston 26 serves to protect the valve seat for the valve 12 against hammering and injury. The various adjustments made by the plate 36, turn buckle 58 and nuts 51 and 52 on the rod 19 serve to insure that the machine can be placed and kept in proper working order. The construction is particularly practical and efficient and has proved its value in practice. The appended claims define the invention which is to be considered as comprehensive of all forms of structure coming within their scope.

I claim:

1. In a machine of the class described, a member having a passage therethrough and provided at one end with a downwardly eX- tencling nozzle, a valve in said member, spring means acting on the valve to normally move it to closed position, a scale beam pivotally mounted between its ends on said nozzle, weights at one end of the beam, a receptacle suspended from the scale beam adjacent its other end, an outlet to said receptacle at the bottom thereof, a closure movably mounted to open or close said outlet, manually operable means for moving said valve to open position, means connecting the manually operated means and said outlet closure whereby the closure is moved to closed position when the valve is moved to open position and vice versa, latch means for holding the said manually operable means in position to keep said valve in open position, and means connected with the end of the scale beam opposite the end at which the weights are mounted for acting on said latch means to move it to free said manually operated means when the weight of liquid passed to the receptacle verbalances said weights carried on the scale beam, substantially as described.

2. In a machine of the class described, a faucet member having a passage therethrough and provided at one end with a downwardly extending nozzle, a valve in said member, a rod to which the valve is attached extending to in front of the faucet member, a lever pivotally mounted between its ends on the faucet member, a member on the front end of the valve rod, a spring between said member and the faucet member for holding the valve in closed position, fingers connected with the lever and bearing against said member on the valve rod, a latch bar pivotally mounted on the nozzle and extending upwardl and provided with a dog to engage the inner end of said lever when it is manually operated to move the valve to open position, a scale beam mounted between its ends on the nozzle for pivotal movement, weights at one end of the beam, a receptacle for holding liquid suspended from the beam adjacent its other end and dir ctly under the nozzle, and an irregularly shaped member pivotally connected at its upper end to the faucet member and at its lower end to the scale beam, said member bearing against the latch bar, and spring means normally drawing said latch bar against the irregularly shaped member, substantially as described.

3. A construction containing the elements in combination defined in claim 2, combined with an outlet to the bottom of the receptacle, a valve for closing said outlet, a rod extending upwardly from said valve, a lever positioned horizontally across the open upper end of the receptacle and pivotally connected thereto at one end, connections between the valve rod and said horizontally positioned lever between the ends of said lever, and rigid connections between the free end of said horizontally positioned lever and the lever mounted on the faucet member, substantially as described.

a. In a machine of the character described, a faucet member having a valve therein to control the passage of liquid from the said member, means normally closing the valve, manually operable means for moving the valve to open position, a latch engaging with said means to hold the valve in open position, a scale beam pivotally mounted between its ends on the faucet member, weights at one end of the beam, a receptacle to hold liquid carried by the scale beam adjacent its other end into which liquid is delivered by the faucet member, and means movably mounted on the faucet member and connected to the beam and operatively engaging the latch so as to move the latch to free said valve when the scale beam is moved by the overloalancing of the weights by the weight of liquid received in said receptacle.

5. A construction containing the elements in combination defined in claim 4, said receptacle having an outlet opening in the bottom thereof, combined with a movably mounted closure for said opening, and connections between said closure and the manually operable means whereby the closure is moved to closed position when the valveis moved to open position and vice versa.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

nines J, FORTIER. 

